Port of Hamburg posts a loss

The decline in seaborne container throughput is primarily due to the drop in handling volumes with China, Russia and Poland. Overall, slightly more than 800,000 fewer containers (TEU) were handled in container traffic via the Port of Hamburg than in the previous year with these trading partners, which are particularly important for Hamburg, in 2015.

"The Port of Hamburg continues to occupy a strong position among Northern European ports in container traffic with the Baltic region. In comparison with ports such as Antwerp and Rotterdam, Hamburg's share of transhipment cargo is around 7 percentage points higher," explains Axel Mattern, CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing e.V. "This is also one reason why Hamburg is more affected by China's weakening foreign trade and Russia's economic problems than Antwerp or Rotterdam, for example," adds Mattern. A large proportion of the China and Russia cargo handled in Hamburg is transhipped via Hamburg from large container ships to feeder ships. "With a decline in container traffic with China of 14.4 percent and with Russia of 34.4 percent, this cannot be offset by growth in container traffic with other countries, such as Malaysia, India, the United Arab Emirates or Mexico. As seaborne transhipment from a large container ship to a feeder ship is statistically recorded as one transhipment each in transhipment traffic worldwide, the decline in transhipment hits the port twice over," explains Mattern.

The decline in throughput in seaborne container traffic with Polish ports is also a consequence of the direct calls of container liner services, which head directly to Gdansk without transhipment in one of the North Range ports. "Such direct calls are always an alternative to transhipment traffic for shipping companies, the majority of which serve hub ports such as Hamburg with their liner services," says Mattern. The prerequisites for direct calls are sufficient cargo availability and ports equipped to handle particularly large container ships.

Record volumes in hinterland traffic puts rail transport in first place in the modal split

Jens Meier, CEO of the HPA, emphasized the very good development of the Port of Hamburg's hinterland traffic in 2015 at the joint Port of Hamburg annual press conference. According to Meier, it is particularly pleasing that landside traffic increased overall and that the railroads in particular were able to achieve the highest transport result to date with 45.8 million tonnes (+3.1 percent). "Good work pays off. By optimizing our processes, we have succeeded in positioning rail as the most important means of transport, even ahead of trucks. This is an outstanding achievement throughout Europe and the figures show how much potential lies in the intelligent expansion of the infrastructure. We will continue to develop this potential," emphasizes Jens Meier. With a share of 45.3 percent of the modal split in the Port of Hamburg, rail has now overtaken the previous leader, the truck, which at 42.7 million tons has a share of 42.4 percent.

"This is unique in Europe and shows that environmentally friendly rail plays a leading role in seaport traffic," adds Ingo Egloff, CEO of Hafen Hamburg Marketing e.V. Container traffic by rail also set a new record in 2015 with 2.3 million TEU, an increase of 2.8 percent. More than 200 freight trains arrive at or depart from the Port of Hamburg every day. With around 1,100 container train connections per week, Hamburg occupies a leading position by a wide margin compared to ports such as Rotterdam or Antwerp. "Hamburg has the largest number of container transports by rail in Europe and is the leading rail port. Hamburg's share of container shipments by rail is around 50 percent among the North Range ports. Rotterdam's share is 19.0 percent and Antwerp's is 8.0 percent," emphasizes Egloff.

Egloff also emphasizes that, according to the first available transport data for 2015, inland waterway vessels achieved an increase of 27.5% with 130,000 TEU transported. Overall, the volume of cargo transported by inland waterway vessels in 2015 was 12.4 million tons, an increase of 13.6%. "Hamburg has thus replaced Cologne as the second largest inland waterway port in Germany. In the inbound and outbound transport of non-time-critical goods and particularly heavy and large-volume cargoes, inland waterway vessels occupy a very important position in the transport mode mix of our universal port. As this also helps to relieve other modes of transport, it is important to further expand this transport route," says Egloff.

Bulk cargo handling remains on course for growth in 2015

Bulk cargo handling was dominated by the grab cargo segment, which achieved an overall handling result of 22.3 million tons, an increase of 9.2%. In this handling segment, it was primarily imports of coal, which accounted for 7.7 million tons (+27.3 percent) of growth. In addition to steelworks in northern and eastern Germany, coal is also used by industrial companies and power plants. The suction goods sector also achieved growth with a total of 9.2 million tons (+12.4 percent). Increased grain exports in particular contributed 4.2 million tons (+28.8 percent) to the annual result. At 14.0 million tons (-2.6%), the handling of liquid cargo in 2015 remained slightly below the previous year's result.

Non-containerized general cargo handling, such as large plant components and RoRo cargo, remained below the previous year's result in 2015 at 1.7 million tonnes (-14.1%). Lower exports of iron and steel in particular led to a decline in exports.

According to Ingo Egloff, the continuing increase (+27.6 percent) in the number of large container ships (ULCS) calling at Hamburg (647 calls) underlines the urgency of realizing the still outstanding fairway adjustment of the Lower and Outer Elbe. "We urgently need the fairway adjustment so that particularly large ships can be handled more flexibly and transhipment cargo in the Port of Hamburg can continue to provide employment at the terminals," Egloff demands. The current restrictions on the Elbe restrict the utilization of the transport capacities of large ships, make ship encounters more difficult and thus a more flexible flow of traffic on the Elbe. "A particularly large container ship could transport up to 1,800 more loaded containers (TEU) inbound and outbound after a fairway adjustment. The number of particularly large container ships with a slot capacity of 14,000 to 19,000 TEU also continued to rise in 2015, reaching an increase of 142% with 150 calls.

The Port of Hamburg employs more than 153,000 people in the Hamburg metropolitan region and, with a gross value added of 20.5 billion euros, is also of great importance for the entire German economy. In order to keep the universal port on course for growth, Axel Mattern and Ingo Egloff believe that, in addition to the adjustment of the navigation channels of the Lower and Outer Elbe, the access and discharge corridors for the transportation of goods by rail, truck and inland waterway vessel must also be adapted and expanded.

It is difficult to make a forecast for 2016 regarding the development of seaborne cargo handling against the backdrop of the unpredictable development of foreign trade in the port's core markets. The Port of Hamburg's marketing organization therefore considers a handling result on a par with 2015 to be realistic.